Senior Citizens May Not Get Social Security COLA for Years Says Kaiser Medicare Brief
Senior Journal ^ | June 29, 2009

Posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 9:30:51 AM by GailA

Social Security News

Senior Citizens May Not Get Social Security COLA for Years Says Kaiser Medicare Brief

No Social Security increase also means higher Medicare Part B fees for many seniors says the analysis.

June 29, 2009 – Senior citizens are not expected to receive a cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2010 – for the first time ever. What’s worse, they may not receive an increase for the next three years. And, it keeps getting worse – no COLA means high Medicare Part B premiums for about a quarter of all Medicare beneficiaries, according to an analysis by the the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Medicare Issue Brief, based on the most recent projections of the Medicare and Social Security Trustees, explains the relationship between the Social Security COLA and the Medicare Part B premium, and the implications for those who are covered by both programs.

With Medicare Part B spending expected to continue to increase in the coming years, beneficiary premium contributions are also expected to rise to cover 25 percent of total Part B spending as required by law. Not all Medicare beneficiaries will be affected. About three in four Medicare beneficiaries are protected by a “hold-harmless” provision in the law that ensures that their Medicare premiums do not increase more than any increase in Social Security premiums, according to the report.

Thus, the higher premiums would fall on the remaining one quarter of beneficiaries – with monthly premiums expected to rise from $96.40 this year to $104.20 in 2010 and $120.20 in 2011.

Because most in this group are low-income beneficiaries eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid benefits, Medicaid would pay the cost of the monthly Part B premium, increasing Medicaid costs for states.

Higher-income beneficiaries who are required to pay an income-related surcharge in addition to the monthly Part B premium would also pay the higher rate, as would any new enrollees who did not receive Social Security payments in the previous year and/or were not covered under Part B.

No COLA raise for Seniors, No COLA raise for retired Military, cuts to Medicare and Tricare, we families who depend on Tricare for our secondary health insurance after our spouses spent 20 or more years serving their country are going to be getting double screwed with the cuts and increases in premiums and fees.

In the Hannity interview the remark went totally over Hannity’s head. I don’t think any of the talk radio host know what Tricare is!

TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:

Link to Tricare cuts

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)

3 posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 9:35:25 AM by ClearCase_guy (We have the 1st so that we can call on people to rebel. We have 2nd so that they can.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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To: GailA
Ole Matt said last June that it would be 2 years, obviously they are planning for a huge inflation rate for the next 3 years.

Plan on cutting the budget by cutting the benes for SS/Military, BUT does this apply to FED EMPLOYEES.
Wonder if only “working” FED employees get an increase.
LIKE CONGRESS.
Anyone know the answer to this one.

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To: Uncle Chip
But I’ll bet that al federal government employees and retirees will receive their 3% annual raises and increasess!!!
You lose. I am a retired federal employee. Our COLAs are tied directly the CPI-W figures just like SS. We get the same increases or lack thereof. No raise this year and probably none next year at a minimum. Active federal employees use a different system for the computation of their increases, which amount to 2% this year.

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To: GailA
Thus, the higher premiums would fall on the remaining one quarter of beneficiaries – with monthly premiums expected to rise from $96.40 this year to $104.20 in 2010 and $120.20 in 2011.
NOT TRUE!!!

I turn 65 next month. I have already been informed by the SSA that my premiums for Medicare Pt. B will be $110.50/mo. The SSA also says that after they contact the IRS, this amount may increase (retro-actively to Feb.1) depending on my total income.

I’m not complaining about not getting COLA or the amount of my Medicare premiums, just stating a fact.

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To: Marty62
Fed employees just got a pay raise, and congress gets one automatically each year plus extra perks. And it is not a tiny raise like they give SS, disabled Vets, retired Military and disabled on SS.
It’s just not the benefit cuts, it’s the fee hikes along with the inflation that will really put the squeeze on us seniors. We are already feeling the pinch with increased cost of living for food, gas etc. Along with the pay cut while small $10.80 with the income tax fiddling the demwits did we’ve had to cut corners where ever we can.

And when seniors have less available extra cash then they don’t contribute to church or charities, give presents to grand kids, etc….snowball effect on the economy.

I planted a veggie garden last year and intend to expand it this year. The old Victory Garden…home owner’s association can go fly a kite, if they don’t like it. I hid the green beans in behind the azeleas out front and on the side of the house. We have a huge hill for a back yard.

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To: ladyvet
When I read the headline what first came to mind was all of those seniors cheering on “The One” for hope and change during the Presidential campaign.
You should be remembering younger voters, because the seniors voted republican.

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To: Roccus
This is a report on the Kaiser Foundation report, and we all know how LEFT wing the Kaiser Foundation is, they may have just been conservative in their math, and it was done in June, a lot has changed in the last couple of months.

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To: ladyvet
Yes. I suspect the majority of Seniors voted for Zero. I am so sorry that they weren’t more curious about what he would REALLY do in office, instead of what he SAID he would do. Those of us who looked beneath the smarmy veneer KNEW what was coming with Zero.

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To: GailA
I remember during the 2nd worst Presidents aftermath. A SS eligible woman was living in her home alone.
Her daughter would come over to check on her. She would always check her cabinets and fidge to make sure she had plenty of food.
She collapsed one day and a neighbor called the ems.
When the Doc told her that her Mother was suffering from MALNUTRITION, she couldn’t believe it.
When she went to her home she found that her Mother had neatly placed the empty boxes neatly back in the Cabinets.
Empty milk cartons in the fridge etc.

Expect muchh more of this type of thing happening.
My question is, will they get medical care? Useless eaters you know.

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To: ansel12
…because the seniors voted republican.
How can you say that? There’s plenty of Democratic seniors. I expected most of the youth vote to go to the shiny new object but the seniors should have known better.

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To: ThePatriotsFlag
How can this be? Wasn’t it the Democrats that said we have to beware of the Republicans who would take benefits from seniors? Now the Democrats have done it?
Needs to be repeated every 30 minutes!

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To: originalbuckeye
Yes. I suspect the majority of Seniors voted for Zero.
No they didn’t. The following is pulled from a left-of-center site, but there’s plenty more out there that can be collaborated on a quick search:

Election Day was full of historic results for Barack Obama. But his performance among seniors (age 65 and over) provided one of the few lower points, as exit polls show that Obama lost to John McCain among seniors 45 to 53 percent. According to the exit polls, while Obama made gains with nearly all groups compared to John Kerry, this did not happen with seniors.

20 posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 10:24:34 AM by browardchad (“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own fact.” – Daniel P Moynihan)
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To: originalbuckeye
As much as I despise Obama, he has nothing to do with COLA increases for SS. They are based on a formula approved by Congress. COLA Estimates

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To: GailA
Hell that would not be too bad if actually there was no inflation. I wonder what is in the ‘market basket’ that evidences no inflation? Obviously it must exclude food, meds, taxes, and rent. Oh also, senior income has gone down along with their investment interest rates hovering around 1%. It’s lose-lose for seniors.

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To: browardchad
Unlike among the electorate as a whole, Obama was not able to assuage the fear among white seniors that the change he would bring would be detrimental to their lives. (from the site) I stand corrected. It would appear that at least white Seniors realized the danger of an Obama Administration……and it turns out they were right.

You bet they did- while seniors, many who live on only $600 a month because they all worked minimum wage jobs, and hterefore get only the bare minimum SS now, struggle to get by each month, congress, who make an average of $80,000 per year, gave themselves an average of $4500 COLA (they call it a pay raise, but it’s a COLA make no mistake about it). While seniors receiving the minimum would have had an increase in their ‘COLA’ increase of only $12 or so dollars per month, they congress criminals gave themsleves an increase of al,ost $450 per month increase to go along with hteir swanky $80,000 a year ‘salary’ for hwich they do hardly any work- many times only workign about 7-15 days per month, and not even putting in full days (Note- Congress only worked 7 days last Febuary, and those weren’t even full days- they cotinually give htemselves ‘vacations’, sometimes for a month or even more- apparently htinking they’ve ‘earned’ it, while Seniors sit in their homes freezing and having little to eat and paying through the nose for overpriced medications.

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To: ex-snook
[[Hell that would not be too bad if actually there was no inflation.]]

Or insurance rate icnreases, water bill increases, electricity price increases, gasoline price increases, (we’re almost over $3.00 a gallon again, and htere’s been ‘no COL increase’?), no price of milk increase, cheeze, eggs, etc etc etc- however, ALL these and much more has indeed risen over the past year, but by golly, the Fed declares there’s been no COL increase, so thsoe ‘greedy senoirs’ who are ‘sponging off hte govenrment’ get no COL increase, but Fed employeees get their COL increase per usual

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To: browardchad
“Obama made gains with nearly all groups compared to John Kerry, this did not happen with seniors.”

Seniors had many more years of experience/seasoning and thus apparently were far better BS detectors than young voters who voted with their hearts rather than their heads.

Obama showed his gratitude towards young voters by endorsing a mandate that they all buy health insurance at actuarially unfair premiums that ensured they would subsidize older people (whose incomes typically are far higher than those of a young worker just starting a career). Of course, in the election campaign, Obama lambasted Hillary for proposing just such a mandate, but his stringent opposition to an individual mandate was just one of many campaign promises tossed aside when it became politically convenient to do so.

These same youngsters also will pay through the nose for the tsunami of deficits being incurred under Obama’s watch.

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To: ladyvet; dalereed
Sorry guys, the strongest republican vote of any age group in 2008 was the senior citizens, second was the boomers, younger than the boomers was a huge turn out for Obama and the 18-29 year olds went 66% Obama.

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To: chatham
It’s not just seniors on SS, but our Veterans on VA disability, our retired Military, who served for lower pay than a civilian would have gotten for the same job.
It’s also the cuts to their benefits the increase in fees for those cut benefits, the rising cost of food, utilities. You put all that in one package and your really hurt a lot of Americans.

We are hearing MORE property taxes here in Memphis, they didn’t fund the schools last year or this year, now they want us to pay more property taxes for it. (It’s a cost sharing with the county, Memphis didn’t pay their share.)

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Three Navy SEALs, Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer Julio Huertas all face criminal charges for allegedly punching Ahmed Hashim Abed while he was being detained. (Abed was the ringleader of the Iraqi terrorists that ambushed Blackwater employees, murdered them, dragged their bodies through the streets, burned them and then hung them from a bridge).

On December 7, the three SEALs are set to go before a Judge and plead not guilty. This first court appearance is only the arraignment and the actual trial is set to be sometime in January.

A Protest is being Organized to support the SEALs and send the message that Americans are tired of our military being expected to fight a politically correct war, that we are weary of our troops having to face criminal charges for doing their job.

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